Post #441397

2026-02-27 20:40 UTC

@JulianOliver@mastodon.social We shouldn't forget intermediates between self-hosting and megacorps. Mastodon is an obvious example: I'm not hosting this instance. (Thanks @Larvitz@burningboard.net ). signalapp@mastodon.world is run by a non-profit foundation. @nextcloud@mastodon.xyz comes quickly to mind. It's for-profit, but it has user-friendly principles. A similar description applies to @openstreetmap@en.osm.town and Bandcamp.

Replies (2)

@JulianOliver@mastodon.social 2026-02-27 20:47

@alison@burningboard.net @Larvitz@burningboard.net @nextcloud@mastodon.xyz @openstreetmap@en.osm.town Yes it is good such ethical and managed services exist. They can meet many needs and we (Nīkau) often recommend various providers in this space. There are many needs they can not meet however, like those of frontline activism, organisations with stricter privacy requirements or those needing more scalability and flexibility as they grow. It is for such cases that we offer training and do server deployments.

Open ##3137793
@Larvitz@burningboard.net 2026-02-27 20:47

@alison@burningboard.net @JulianOliver@mastodon.social @nextcloud@mastodon.xyz @openstreetmap@en.osm.town I totally agree. There are several ways to escape megacorps without actually self-hosting stuff. There's cooperatives (like German Hostsharing e.G.), hosted services from freedom-oriented parties (Posteo, Codeberg, Proton etc.), managed solutions like masto.host, that host your own Mastodon instance for you and many more. There's also community built services by makerspaces or local hackerspaces etc. There's all shades of grey between big-tech and self-hosting.

Open ##3137794